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Embattled highway-safety chief resigns

By Matt Murphy, State House News Service

Updated:
11/23/2012 02:57:57 PM EST

BOSTON -- Former Massachusetts Highway Safety Director Sheila Burgess, who earlier this week was removed from her job after her lengthy record of driving violations were made public, has resigned from the Patrick administration.

Burgess submitted her resignation letter to Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday afternoon, citing her health as the key factor in her decision. Burgess has been on medical leave since August when she drove her car off the road in Milton and suffered a head injury.

Her resignation letter was released late Wednesday afternoon when the halls of the state Capitol were mostly quiet and employees had already left for the Thanksgiving holiday, which coincidentally is one of the busiest travel days of the year. Burgess intends to remain a state employee until the end of the year.

"It has been my pleasure to serve this administration over the past five years. However, at this time I feel my health must be my first priority, therefore please be advised I will resign my employment with the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPPS), effective December 31, 2012," Burgess wrote in her letter.

Following a report in the Boston Globe on Sunday that Burgess, who was hired in 2007, had a driving record with 34 incidents, including seven accidents, four speeding violations and two failures to stop for a police officer, Patrick called her hiring for the safety director post a "screw-up.

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While several lawmakers called for Burgess to be fired, Patrick said earlier this week that Burgess would be reassigned to another position when she returned from medical leave.

In a statement from Patrick, the governor said Burgess' resignation would allow the Massachusetts Highway Safety Division to "move forward with its mission."

"We have made great effort to make sure our administration is staffed with committed, qualified and dedicated professionals. That is overwhelmingly the case and I am proud to work with so many talented people. However, we don't always get it right. And when we don't, we fix it," Patrick said in a statement.

On the heels of the Globe report, Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan said Burgess never should have been hired as the director of highway safety, a job for which she was paid $87,000 a year. Heffernan said Burgess had lost the trust of the public and the administration, despite performing her duties "properly and with professionalism."

Prior to the August accident, Burgess did not have any incidents while working at the highway-safety division.

"While Ms. Burgess has had success in securing millions of dollars in federal funding for Massachusetts and her office has received positive reviews from federal agencies, given her driving background, it was a mistake to hire her for this position. Her resignation will allow her to focus on her health and allow the department to move forward with its mission," Patrick said on Wednesday in his statement.

Burgess, 48 of Randolph, said she would assist the administration "with any transition issues that may arise" until Dec. 31.

Prior to joining the administration, Burgess had been active in Democratic politics as a consultant and fundraiser with the Mass. Strategy Group run by her sister Coleen Burgess. Administration officials said U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern referred Burgess for a job when Patrick became governor, but Patrick earlier this week pushed back against the suggestion that her hiring amounted to political patronage.

"Look, people come to us from all sorts of sources, including you folks in the media, and we review them on the merits and we try to place them if we can and it makes sense and in this case I understand she did a great job in the job she had, but with a record like that she's not going to have anybody's confidence in that job, so if she goes back she'll into a different job," Patrick said.

Reps. Peter Durant (R-Spencer), Ryan Fattman (R-Sutton) and Kevin Kuros (R-Uxbridge) on Monday called for Burgess's firing, and said the Democrat-controlled House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight should investigate and "review the patronage hiring practices of the Patrick-Murray administration."

"With unemployment rising in Massachusetts and the Beacon Hill leadership giddy about proposing new tax hikes, this Administration is hiring unqualified, political fundraising operatives as public safety chiefs for a near six figure salary," Fattman said in a statement Monday. "The people of Massachusetts are losing their patience and appetites for this turkey the Administration keeps serving up."

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